Me Injun

            Elizabeth Warren, Senate hopeful from Massachusetts, recently made news with reports that she had used a highly doubtful claim of Native-American ancestry to obtain preferential treatment as a minority. I had to chuckle at this cynical and absurd ploy, because I could have done the same thing myself.

            Not long ago my sister Louise and I decided to do our family tree. The research was great fun. By the time we finished, we had documented ancestors going back to 16th century France. Fortunately, we got plenty of help from genealogical societies and one book in particular that detailed my paternal grandparents' lines back to the very earliest settlement of their village in Canada. We also had a family photo album that my grandparents had maintained religiously over the years. The most intriguing photos, however, were found in a shoebox. Of those, the most startling was a tintype of my maternal grandmother's mother.
            She had very definite features of a Native-American.
            "I knew it!" blurted my sister. "We have Indian blood coursing through our veins."
            Louise had insisted for years, even before our genealogical research, that we must have had an infusion of aboriginal genes somewhere in our ancestry. That's because our dad looked like he could have posed for the Indian nickel. He had high cheekbones, a swarthy complexion, a prominent hooked nose, and straight jet-black hair. In addition, he shared  those characteristics with one of his brothers, and passed some of them on. We were not able to trace our great-grandmother's line back far enough to prove our Indian ancestry, but it was enough for me to shout, "I could have  built a casino!"
            Joking aside, claims of special status based on remote connections to a minority group are laughable. Worse, they are racist and un-American. They are no better than demands of reparations for ills committed generations ago.
            All Americans are descendants of people who were oppressed,  some more than others to be sure, but vilified in one way or another. American history  is filled with stories of religious persecution, famine, tyranny, enslavement, and murderous bigotry. Fortunately, these tales of human degradation are overshadowed by stories of courage in the face of adversity, determination to succeed, indomitable spirit, and struggle for freedom and equality.
            It is high time for Americans of all colors, creeds, and ancestries to reject policies of class warfare and divisiveness, the cult of victimhood, and the culture of imagined rights and unearned entitlements.
            We are not a hyphenated people. We are Americans. Let us celebrate our diverse heritage, but let us not forget our motto, E pluribus unum.